Mr. Septian Dwi Cahyo: Music & Algorithmic composition at KUG, Graz, Austria

katrinNews, The Arts

Mr. Septian Dwi Cahyo is a graduate from the Institut Seni Indonesia Yogyakarta (ISI), a member university of ASEA-UNINET since 2017. He is the first Indonesian student to take a music internship in Austria in the frame of ASEA-UNINET, which he took at University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (KUG) in Austria.

The OeAD grant for music internship allowed him to study music composition with Prof. Beat Furrer in the period of March-May 2018, during which he also took an algorithmic composition class with Gerhard Nierhaus. Aspiring to be a composer of modern classical/experimental music, he spent his 3-month stay in Graz to study composition, to carry out research on the history of Indonesian contemporary music and gamelan and to write new compositions to be performed by the KUG student ensemble.

His research on Indonesian contemporary music was presented in Prof. Georg Haas‘ class, whereas the gamelan music presentation he gave in Prof. Furrer’s. He completed a number of modern classical and electronic compositions, all of which were created on a theoretical platform more commonly known in the field of mathematics and computer science.

The first one, Follow the Map III, which was created using fractal binary tree L system, has been performed by the KUG ensemble during his period of internship. The second piece, CAh kangkung, is an electronic music built on a concept of resulting state of 1D cellular automata, which was performed at the Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics of KUG. The third is a piece for two percussionists titled Dwitunggal, which roughly translates to duumvirate, that combines the L system and Fibonnaci series to deconstruct gamelan forms to produce new manners and characteristics. This piece will be performed at the Total Perkusi Festival in Yogyakarta, Indonesia in August 2018. The fourth piece is the CAh Kangkung II series, in which he aims to deconstruct the meaning of „stage“ and which is currently available only in his personal Dropbox storage for limited time (see below).

Septian Dwi Cahyo’s compositions written and/or performed during his study at KUG:

  • CAh Kangkung, a composition based on the 1D cellular automata, was performed at IEM (Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics) of KUG in Graz on June 28, 2018 –
    concert program
  • CAh Kangkung II: Partikel, a piece from the CAh Kangkung II series based on the 1D cellular automata, is available at dropbox storage file until the end of June 2018.
  • Dwitunggal will be performed at Total Perkusi Festival in Yogyakarta in August 2018.